Archive for the ‘Thailand’

We left Matteo Tricarico in Italy, after having completed the first part of his Travel For Aid odyssey across Asia into Europe… Matteo is now back on the road, starting from Bangkok, Thailand, and trying to end up in North China before starting a new pan- American adventure… we are therefore happy to start publishing his chronicles once again!!

Although today is the 14th day since I started riding after the four-month stay in Italy (not the longest dwelling, I stayed in Nepal for five months!), the feeling is that I never really stopped and this second stage of my travel is in fact just the continuation of the first one. During the Italian break, I was busy telling my experience to voluntary and cycling associations, schools, friends and perfect strangers who, thanks to the local media, knew all about me. I got used to be stopped in the street by people asking me the question “Are you the one who …?”. With very poor results, I also tried to find sponsorships and, despite the crisis, I was fortunate to meet Enzo Longo, owner of a bicycle company in Ostuni. He built a tailored made bicycle, personalized with my name, site of Travel For Aid and the writing “World Tour”. But I think that the greatest success of my dwelling in Italywas the recruitment of Dr. Marta Santoro, who became my travel companion for the first five weeks throughout Indochina. Marta, born in 1980, from my same hometown, studied as a chiropractor and worked in Englandfor ten years, where she covered hundreds of miles cycling. (more…)

I am happy to announce that I made the headlines at Tom Vater‘s website… check the piece here.

I recently met Tom in Bangkok; he is a travel/guidebook and adventure writer based in Thailand (check out his guides to Cambodia and Angkor Wat out on excellent MOON Publishing), and also former guitarist of Bangkok garage punkers Pussy and the Learjets. In brief, the kind of person I consider a hero. (more…)

Yep, I know I have not been updating this site for too long. I may write an emotional post on how things have gotten boring and sad lately, but I’ll spare it for the good of mankind. I start publishing instead a report of my May 2011 trip to the backwaters of Southern Thailand… I do not know whether or not there will be a follow-up, but some information on Hat Yay may be definitely worth for the world out there. Do not hate me. I have a monstrous writing block, lately, and things may have to stay this way for a while.

I said it before and I’ll say it again: the first time I traveled extensively in Southern Thailand in late 2008 I was badly impressed by the state of commercialization and flock of “Banana Pancake Trail” tourists ala “Tubing in the Vang Vieng” t-shirts. After I did my open water dive certification in backpacker heaven Koh Tao, although having visited less explored areas like Nakhon Pathom and Nakhon Si Thammarat, I decided I had had enough of the major islands of the Thailand Gulf. When I arrived in Penang for the first time, the change of atmosphere won me over for good, and touristy Thailand was quickly forgotten. (more…)